Dairy Life at B Ranch

MENDOZA

Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the tell-all interview can now be watched on Youtube. Scroll down for the links

It’s hard to keep up with all the lies and other forms of manure spewing from the mouths of Point Reyes’s “good people” / “stewards of the land” / “loyal taxpayers / “real Americans” / “local producers” / whatever other ridiculous titles they’ve bestowed upon themselves, so let’s start with a quick summary of just one of those families. The Mendoza Dynasty

All accusations are backed up with fully documented proof further down.

Where to begin?

Joylnn McClelland, a Mendoza descendant, brought this on by submitting a letter of lies to the Marin Independent Journal, who, in typical MIJ fashion, unquestionably published the letter as they do with all pro-rancher propaganda. Joylnn runs ‘L Ranch’ within Point Reyes National Seashore, one of many ranches the Mendozas hold leases on in the seashore (not to mention all the land they have outside the seashore.) She mistakenly refers to herself as the’ sole proprietor’, indicating how deeply the misunderstanding of the difference between leasing and owning runs with these ranchers. With the amount of pride excuding from Joylnn’s letter I can’t help but point out that her big accomplishment in life was to be born into a family empire that sucks on public funding’s jugular like an unquenchable leech.

Contrary to her claims, her grandfather, rather than "having foresight to partner with the park service", (her words), actually fought the creation of the seashore, going so far as to appear personally in Congress to testify against the proposed park plan along with Zena Mendoza-Cabral and Alfred Grossi who also protested the seashore. Mr. Mendoza also submitted a letter of protest cosigned by the Nunes family. It was the ranchers who joined a coalition and convinced the Marin Board of Supervisors to resist the park (very clearly documented in the Administrative History of Point Reyes.

In the course of his testimony, Joseph Mendoza, tried to gain the pity of the committee to such an extent he explained multiple times how hard they (the ranchers) worked to destroy the native habitat and turn it into pasture. He and Grossi refer to it as “beautifying” Point Reyes and feel “ripped off” because now it is going to be turned into a park after all their years of converting native habitat into pasture. While Mendoza and other ranchers may not value native brush, every other living creature in Point Reyes does, with the exception of his cows, which are the reason he destroyed Point Reyes and replaced the vegetation with something that only serves the cattle and the ranchers. The good of the many sacrificed for the profit of a few. Stewards of the land.

Joseph H. Mendoza Sr. who testified in Congress against the seashore

Joseph H. Mendoza Jr.

Talk about an eye of the beholder scenario; the destruction of a biodiversity hotspot in exchange for a family’s chosen profession is referred to as “beautiful.” And that’s before even mentioning that the core of this “chosen profession” is the stealing of newborns from their mothers (and repeating that process endlessly until death).

In the course of the testimony we also learn how many different ranches the Mendoza’s already run and the extent of their property that isn’t used for ranching. The area too difficult to convert to pasture, mainly steep wooded areas, is instead used for hunting. Now considering the seemingly endless list of rancher violations coming to light as well as their apparent belief that they still own the land they sold, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they still hunt whenever they damn well please. Stewards of the land...which apparently means taking from the land in any way they can come up with.

"Milking". An image from one of the many sob story articles trying to get pity for the Point Reyes Ranchers. This has been their legacy

Joylnn goes on to talk about “milking” 150 certified organic cows on L Ranch. Let’s dig into the details of just that sentence a little more. I find it an overly romantic term to refer to commotized mammals hooked up to machines as “milking”. Secondly, there’s almost no chance in hell that she does any of this “milking” herself, unless its for an advertising photo. As we recently learned in a tell-all interview from a former ranch hand, the actual ranch families do little more than supervise their exploited workers. Last, what kind of magic does the word “organic” hold over people? Just because Monsanto isn’t present doesn’t turn this into a “heaven on earth” situation. Go take a look at the horrific landscape of L Ranch for yourself. This is the effect of 150 cows on the land. On that note let’s not forget the pity piece that the Point Reyes Light wrote about McClure Ranch reducing its cattle from 650 to 150, as if that is supposed to be some sort of tiny operation.

Multigenerational entitlement rings loud and clear from these ranching families each time they mention “how long they have been there” as if that somehow forgives all the harm they have done to the land or the money they have drained from taxpayers.

According to research included in Bruce Keegan's book on Point Reyes, In 1971 the Mendozas finally sold their land in the seashore to the federal government (according to this source they intentionally delayed the park service in order to drive up the price). In the years immediately following the sales they proceeded to buy land in Marin County outside the seashore. Fifty years later the Mendozas still haven't left the land they were paid millions of dollars for. Rather than using the money to transition out of the seashore once their 25 year lease back expired, they (along with other ranchers) hired lobbyists to amend the legislation in order to never leave. Now, on the taxpayers' dime, the Mendozas have huge landholdings in Marin and enjoy ridiculously cheap leases on multiple locations in the seashore as well.

On the left is one of the man deeds showing new land purchased by Joseph H. Mendoza following the 8,000,000 received for his land in Point Reyes National Seashore. Above is an excerpt from Bruce Keegan's book.

Sadly, that's not the end of their manipulation of public funding. The Mendozas also helped form MALT, which raises public and private funds to funnel millions more into the pockets of the very same ranchers who sit on the board of MALT. Read more her.e.

The Mendoza lineage leases five ranches within Point Reyes as well as owning 3,600 acres outside the seashore. It’s amazing that families with their extent of wealth still feel the need to exploit illegal immigrants for cheap labor and declare that wildlife need to be shot so as to not cut in on profits. #StewardOfTheLand.

Exactly how much do the Mendozas have?
Here is some thorough research on the matter:

"The children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Joseph Mendoza (1883-1950) lease five of sixteen ranches on PRNS - "A" Ranch, "B" Ranch, part of "D" Ranch, "E" Ranch, and "L" Ranch in the Point Reyes National Seashore, however also own over 3,600 ACRES of land in Marin County proper. Combined, Tiburon and Belvedere are only 3,177 acres."

Jolynn McClelland is not only a Mendoza, but she is also a Lafranchi and a Dolcini. She is a unique heir to two lines of Marin ranching families - Joseph Viera Mendoza (1883-1950) and Carlo Martinoia [Charles Martin] (1829-1905) - whose collective land holdings in Marin proper (not including PRNS) equals over 16,100 acres. This is more than the land acreage of San Geronimo, Woodacre, Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross, Kentfield, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, Tiburon, and Belvedere combined (16,041 acres). If she cares for the land as much as she claims she can move her L ranch operation to any of her existing land holdings and allow Point Reyes to begin to heal. Ranching, rather than being a stewardship project, is the one thing preventing the land from healing.

Joylynn also went on to lie profusely about the water quality tests, but I already covered that in my breakdown of the Point Reyes Light article, which disturbingly, reads almost verbatim the same crap Joylnn wrote. Once again, no fact-checking was done by the Point Reyes Light, just as with the Marin IJ.

Independent journalism just keeps blowing rancher smoke up our asses.

It's funny that Joylnn refers to the certified water quality tests as having been conducted by "lobbyists". The only people who can afford lobbyists are the ranchers who have been successful enough in their political missions to actual amend legislation in their favor!!

From the Congressional hearing

#5 piii lists Zena Mendoza-Cabral and Joseph Mendoza appearing to provide testimony.

#6 (p. iv) acknowledges a written statement submitted by ‘Nunes and Mendoza’.

#18 (p.12) Call Joseph Mendoza to speak followed by Grossi and Mendoza-Cabral.

#22 (p.16) Zena and Joseph continue their complaints

Below is just one of Joseph's inspiring and selfless (cough cough) quotes from the hearing.

"Although sometimes in today’s world people have to give to the public good, there is no need that the loyal dairy ranches of the Point Reyes Peninsula give to an unnecessary park of minimal value that serve only a few."

Also click here to read from the Administrative History of Point Reyes proof that ranching was never meant to stay in the seashore.

Always complaining and always getting bailed out. The legacy of dairy ranchers

Above is the cover image of an all too typical article about the struggle of dairy ranchers. When has this ever NOT been the case? Perhaps it's not the right business to be in. But what's important to note about this image and its accompanying article is the fact that the man in the image, Joseph H. Mendoza Jr. heavily abused and exploited his ranch hands, yet the article depicts him as loving them and being sad that he had to fire them. Yeah right.
Furthermore, Mendoza's B Ranch never shut down. It's still there and now fosters another deadbeat multigenerational dairy family member who couldn't do anything useful in society so returned to "make a living" sucking on the tit of the taxpayer. That's what Jarrod and Joylnn have in common; privileged status for those who never accomplished a damn thing.

Jarrod Mendoza pats the head of a one day old calf stolen from his mother and being sent to slaughter

Jarrod Mendoza returns to carry on the legacy of sucking the tit of the American taxpayer and stealing babies from mothers, all on a ranch that supposedly shut down in 2009 and was also sold to the U.S. Government decades before that. Were National Parks meant to carry the load of families who can't carry their weight in society?

When you read the sob story published by SF Gate you learn a little history of these now so-called "historic ranch families." They were employees on ranches owned by someone else, people who arrived there long before they did. Eventually they saved enough money to buy the ranches when the owners were ready to move on. This makes these ranch families no more special than the undocumented Hispanic labor force working the ranches right now, except that today's labor force doesn't get paid enough to ever hope to be able to buy ranches themselves.

Add to the history that the dairy people themselves didn't even build these ranch houses, rather they were built by Native Americans turned slaves by proud, European conquerors...The Native Americans that weren't killed or chased off the land at least.

What exactly is there to be proud of in the dairy world?

Land of Death: B Ranch displays its overgrazed, trampled, manure-laden ground mixed with a few isolation pens for babies taken from their mothers shortly after birth.

And now for the Mendoza ranch hand interview

Dairy Life

A revealing look at life on the Mendoza-leased B Ranch in Point Reyes National Seashore, released in three parts, as told by a former ranch hand and his eldest daughter.

Part 1: The People

Instagram teaser from full interview.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @shameofpointreyes

A former Point Reyes ranch-hand describes suddenly losing both his home and job of 20 years while trying to provide for four children, a wife who suffered a stroke the same year, and mounting medical bills.

Enter the life of an undocumented dairy worker at Mendoza's B Ranch in Point Reyes National Seashore; living with rats, skunks, moldy walls, and rotten floorboards all while being intimidated into silence by an angry boss as a consequence for asking for better conditions.

Now factor in the low pay rate, lack of benefits, illegal overtime, and a paycheck that was taxed despite the employee not having a social security number. After 20 years his pay rate had gone up to $5.77 an hour. Minimum wage in California at the time was $8.00.

Unfortunately, rather than being an unusual story this is a common story in Point Reyes National Seashore, an incredibly well kept secret...or more likely an intentionally overlooked practice.

Also common appears to be the practice of "fake shutdowns" during which the ranch owner clears out employees and bring in new ones (note Bob McClure's recent "shutdown"...think he's really going anywhere?)

Although this part wasn't on camera, it is important to note that this family told me that Point Reyes National Seashore park staff were present during all housing inspections, "overseeing it", to make sure the conditions were marked as "acceptable".

Oh, and that was just the human abuse. We will get to the treatment of livestock and wildlife in the next two episodes.

Part 1 in Full

Part 1: Living conditions

Employed from 1989-2009
48 hour work week with a pay of $816 per month.
One week of vacation factored in. Housing factored in. No benefits.
At the end of 20 years the pay had increased $1,200 dollars per month for 48 hour weeks.
Big holes in the floor.
Lots of rotting wood.
Moss.
Paint falling off walls.
Skunks living under house.
Lots of rats, living in the walls and furniture. Ate the living room furniture that they bought with their own money.
They had to provide most things themselves, like furniture and appliances. The heater didn’t work. The stove didn’t work. The fridge didn’t work (he was forced to buy a fridge with his own money in order to store food).
He says his boss “was mad” several times in the interview, “Angry all the time”, and that he was scared to complain because he had his family to look after and wouldn’t know where to go with them. Mendoza would tell him that if he didn’t like it he could leave.
He lived there with 4 babies, his wife and himself.
Had a son with asthma which they suspect was made worse due to the mossy walls and rotting wood.
Joe and Joey Mendoza are the two people in the interview referred to as “the bosses”.
The ranch “shut down” and loss of his job and home came as a surprise
- One day he saw the trucks show up loading cows. This is how he found out he was not gonna have a job. He was given 3 weeks to find somewhere else to live. So he had nowhere to live and nowhere to work all at once. His wife had suffered a stroke the same year.
Bought a trailer in poor condition for the whole family to live in. Everyone slept in the same bed and whenever it rained it leaked on them. Was looking for work all over without any luck.
Things were so bad he was tempted to run or kill himself. He started drinking heavily.
As we know, Mendoza’s B Ranch never shut down. In fact, this interviewee’s nephew ended up getting his old job. “Out with the old, in with the new…” Fake shutdowns to bring in new blood?
Speaks of converting to a chicken farm. Did Mendoza have a permit to become a chicken farm?

The daughter added the following helpful details to the above:

Remembers her dad getting cussed at for asking for better conditions.
She says most of the workers out there are illegal. She explains that the social security number the ranchers ask for are fake numbers, but no one cares.
They were paid with checks, so there’s a record.
The paychecks had taxes deducted!
Her cousin fell through the stairs as a child because the wood was so rotted. A paramedic came.
She remembers being made fun of at school because of how crappy their house was and later because her dad couldn’t find work and she lived in a trailer.
The ranch families didn’t do actual work, just supervised.
She says other ranches also pretended to shut down in order to get rid of workers.
She stated there were 10 or more “worker” houses and trailers as well as multiple buildings the Mendoza family lived in. We, the taxpayers, subsidize all the housing for their employees.
It’s extremely important to note that the NPS staff were present during housing inspections and approved all the listed conditions above.

Part 2: The Cows - Premieres September 15th

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @shameofpointreyes

Part 2: Work conditions and the sad reality of the cows

He “milked” 650 cows per day.
Part of the milking duty meant inspecting them for mastitis (which they often had) then hooking them up to machines, 20 at a time.
The cattle often had fever and pneumonia from standing out in the cold rain so part of his job was giving them medicine. Injections for the adults were given in the neck or ass.
Sick babies were given medicine via bottles. The babies are also left out in the elements and as we have come to understand, often fall ill due to being deprived of colostrum and other nutrients in their mothers’ milk, not to mention simply being deprived of any physical contact with any living creature.
Sometimes the cows had puss filled hooves he needed to treat.
The cows often suffered mastitis and had to be milked separately.
The cows were in the milking barn so long they often wanted to lay down, which meant they laid down in their own excrement. (You can even see this happening when the cows are in the holding pen outside the milking barn. I’ve seen this myself and filmed it.)
Another job of his was scraping the barn floor because of the buildup of feces in the milking area.

He describes that the males are with the mom for one day after birth and the females for 3 days. After that they are taken away.
The females are sent to the little white isolation pens.
All the boys are put in a corral and stay there until every Monday when a truck picks them up. 12-15 brand new baby males every Monday loaded onto a truck with about 200 other babies already in the truck and sent off to Sacramento for auction or slaughter. (Note on accuracy - If this is accurate it would mean 624 baby boys per year. That seems like too many.)
It was his job to separate the babies and he described in detail the mother protesting and searching for the baby. This nine month pregnancy followed by having her baby taken happens to the mom 3, maybe 4 times in her life then she is sent to slaughter as well. He estimated the cow mothers are 8 when they are sent to slaughter. The first impregnation happens at age 2 or 3.
The daughter recalls some of the female cows would not comply with repeatedly having their babies taken and were put in a special corral. They were called the mad cows, but the daughter looks back now realizing it was a “mad cow”, it was a sad mom.

Part 3: The Wildlife

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @shameofpointreyes

Wildlife:

Describes a time Mendoza shot a coyote because it was attracted to the newborn calves. He left it dead in the field.
Describes when all the fallow axis deer were killed via helicopter. He mentions how mad his boss was at the deer for eating his alfalfa. This is a reminder that Feinstein didn’t have the deer killed for any concern for the habitat, but for the ranchers. First the deer, then the elk. Ever wonder how often the ranchers have venison for dinner?
The tule elk in that area came later so weren’t really an issue at the time.

#Mendoza #branch #historicbranch #joemendoza #joeymendoza #joesphmendoza #pointreyes #exploitation #illegal #dairy #marincounty #nunes #spaeletta #cranch #dranch #aranch #historic #illegalworkers #workersrights #shameofpointreyes #stewardsoftheland #debhaaland

Mendoza b Ranch Exposed by Skyler Thomas, creator of The Shame of Point Reyes

Dynastic Wealth - written by anonymous contributor

This letter was originally drafted as a response to Jolynn McClelland’s “Marin Voice” submission (“Point Reyes dairy stewardship protects agricultural heritage”, April 2) in which she refers to her and neighboring operations on the Point Reyes National Seashore as “small family farms.”

Ranchers like Jolynn McClelland have been enormously successful molding the image of the small family farmer. We see images of dairymen and women in muddy goulashes having completed their chores before the sun rises over rolling hills of dried grasses. There is a simplicity to their character and gratitude in their demeanor that seems to say, while the falling prices of organic milk is a constant worry, the land will provide for our humble family.

However, McClelland’s story exemplifies a more disturbing trend in Marin. Contrary to the image portrayed, McClelland is not a small family farmer, but rather the direct heir to what might be the two most powerful and prominent families in Marin history – the Dolcini family and the Mendoza family.

The patriarch of the Dolcini family is Charles Martin, so “extremely affluent” that he is referred to as the “Capitalist of Tomales” in an article preserved in the Anne T. Kent California Room at the Marin County Free Library. Martin was President of the Petaluma National Bank and the Marin County Bank in San Rafael, and he was director of the Hill Bank of Petaluma, the Bank of Sebastopol, and the Banca Svizzera Americana. Martin’s heirs constitute the largest landowning family in Marin County, possessing over 14,200 acres in Marin County alone. To put the size of these land holdings into perspective, this family’s estate is larger than the total land size of Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross, Kentfield, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, and Tiburon combined.

Along with this enormous land wealth, the Dolcini family occupies a privileged position within influential organizations that control taxpayer monies; the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (”MALT”) provides a pertinent example. Two members of the Dolcini family were among those who executed MALT’s Articles of Incorporation, and both sat on the inaugural MALT Board. Since MALT’s foundation, every year, at least one member of the Dolcini family has sat on the MALT Board and/or the MALT Advisory Committee. MALT has purchased nine easements for a total of over $10.5 million from members of this family, and since the passage of Measure A, the family has acquired two new ranches - totaling over 850 acres - using Marin County taxpayer money.[4] (As a reminder, it was a MALT’s purchase of an easement over a Dolcini ranch that brought the recent allegations of corruption.)

It therefore belies credulity that McClelland’s operation is a “small family farm.”

However, McClelland’s dynastic wealth does not end at her mother’s side of the family. As she mentions in her article, she is also the granddaughter of Joseph Mendoza, who sold A, B, and L ranches on the Point Reyes National Seashore to the government in 1971 for $8,000,000, (over $53 million adjusted). With a portion of those funds, over the following two years, Mendoza purchased two new ranches – a 1,631-acre ranch presently owned by McClelland’s mother, Linda (Lafranchi) Mendoza, and an another 787-acres owned by McClelland’s first cousins, Karen and John Taylor. In 2018, MALT purchased an easement over the latter ranch for $3,594,000, using $1,817,950 in Marin Measure A taxpayer money. This was the highest value ever paid by MALT for an easement on a ranch of this kind (in A-60, ARP-60, C-AZP-60 zoning). The entire transaction was completed while two of McClelland’s cousins (including John Taylor who owns the ranch) sat on the MALT Board.

However, McClelland’s political ties run deeper than simply agricultural organizations. A 2015 “Press Democrat” article describing McClelland’s father, Joey Mendoza (1943-2015) states, “A Republican dairyman, Mendoza managed to forge a lasting relationship with Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer from her days as a Marin County supervisor. Similarly, he served as a bridge builder for the farming community with environmentalists, elected Marin County leaders and parks officials at the Point Reyes National Seashore …”

“B” Ranch and “L” Ranch are presently leased by McClelland’s mother, Linda Mendoza, and “A” Ranch, “E” Ranch, and part of “D” Ranch are presently leased by McClelland’s cousin, Betty Nunes.

McClelland’s generational wealth and political connections are not unique to her story, but rather the norm for west Marin ranching dynasties.